This application is related to the following copending U.S. Patent Applications: System and Method for Digital Film Development Using Visible Light, Ser. No. 60/174,055, and having a priority filing date of Dec. 30, 1999; Improved System and Method for Digital Film Development Using Visible Light, Ser. No. 09/751,378, and having a priority filing date of Dec. 30, 1999; Scanning Apparatus and Digital Film Processing Method, Ser. No. 09/751,403, and having a priority filing date of Dec. 30, 1999; and System and Method for Digital Dye Color Film Processing, Ser. No. 09/751,473.
The present invention relates generally to developing and capturing film images, and more particularly to using improved film development techniques to prepare a film for electronic image capture.
People are continually seeking new and improved methods for creating, recreating, and displaying images. As a result of these efforts, images that would take a talented painter weeks, months, or even years to create can now be created within seconds, minutes or hours. With the advent of the computer, and all of the improvements that quickly followed, images can now be recorded and recreated electronically. Even so, the search for better ways to produce and reproduce images continues.
A common method of producing and reproducing an image involves the use a color photographic film. A camera is used to properly expose a photographic film to light. Different wavelengths of light (namely light in the red, blue and green portions of the visible spectrum) react with chemicals (e.g. silver halide) coated in different film layers, thereby forming a latent image primarily in the red-sensitive layer that includes image information from the red wavelengths, a blue-sensitive layer that includes primarily information from the blue wavelengths, and a green-sensitive layer containing primarily information from the green wavelengths of the spectrum. The film is then subjected to a developing process in which developed silver images are generated, and appropriately colored image dyes are produced in each film layer. Typically, after the dye images are produced, the developed silver image is converted back to silver halide using another chemical solution. Finally, the silver halide is removed with yet another chemical solution leaving only the dye images.
A scanner, such as a red-green-blue (RGB) scanner, may then be employed to capture the photographic image which is present in the film. For example, a photograph can be scanned, and an electronic representation of the image (a captured image) can be generated and stored. The captured image may be reproduced without alteration, or image processing techniques can be used to enhance or modify the captured image.
Methods of film processing and image capturing, such as those just described, are in common use, and can be effective in some instances. However, a method that required fewer steps, or fewer chemicals to carry out those steps, would be advantageous.
Therefore, what is needed is an improved method of creating and reproducing a photographic image. Accordingly, the present invention provides a method of capturing film images comprising applying a monobath solution to a film and scanning the coated film to capture an electronic representation of a developed image. The monobath solution forms at least one dye image by developing a latent image present in the film. The monobath solution includes multiple processing agents. In one embodiment, the monobath solution comprises a developing agent and a fixing agent. In another embodiment, the monobath solution comprises a developing agent and a stabilizing agent. In another embodiment of the present invention, a system for processing undeveloped film is provided. In this embodiment, the system comprises an applicator, at least one image recording station, and a data processing system. The applicator operates to apply a monobath solution to the film. The monobath solution operates to produce a developed image within the film. The image recording station operates to scan the developed image within the coated film and produce a sensor data. The data processing system operates to receive the sensor data and output a digital image to an output device. The output device may comprise a printer, memory storage device, data network, the Internet, or any other suitable output device.
An advantage of at least one embodiment of the present invention is that smaller quantities of chemicals are needed to prepare a film for scanning. In particular, the monobath solution and any processing solutions, as well as any silver compounds within the film are not removed from the film.
An advantage of at least one embodiment of the present invention over some digital film processing methods is a reduction in noise due to crosstalk between color channels. A further advantage of an embodiment of the present invention over some digital film processing methods is that the present invention is not affected as much by high-density antihalation layers in film.
An additional advantage of some embodiments of the present invention over some digital film processing methods is that the present invention uses part of the films normal development process so that more dynamic range in a films blue and red layers is allowed, infra-red and/or visible illuminators will not fog the film, grain noise can be reduced, and color correction and grain noise can be improved.